Presidential Responses to HIV/AIDS

With the passing of George H.W. Bush, I saw a lot of posts about how his inaction around AIDS led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Let me be crystal clear, I am not a fan of George H.W. Bush, or really a fan of any Republican since Lincoln, but I have also spent four years obsessively researching the early years of the AIDS epidemic and I’m not sure Bush deserves some of the criticism he’s been getting. But I realized if I was going to talk about what George H.W. Bush did to combat HIV/AIDS, I’d have to do a little more research about where he stacked up against other presidents.

And so, in order of historical appearance, our Presidents and their responses to HIV/AIDS.

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Making Medicare for All Happen

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On my Facebook and Twitter feeds, which are as far left as one can imagine, there has been a lot of chatter about Senator Sanders (I-VT) recent Medicare for All bill. Senator Sanders' bill would give Americans coverage for hospital stays, doctors visits, dental care, substance abuse treatment, and reproductive health care.

Every year, an estimated 45,000 people die because they do not have adequate healthcare coverage. There is no moral justification for a nation that refuses to provide necessary care to everyone. Universal healthcare is already the norm across the world, and even though America is a larger and more diverse country than many others that have universal healthcare, there is no reason single payer healthcare is not possible here.

Full stop. Nothing in this blog post is going to say that universal healthcare is a bad idea. In fact, it's a great idea. It's an idea long-championed by Senator Sanders that should become a reality.

So this blog post is going to explain how to do that.

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Unhappy Families

As others have observed, keeping up with political commentary in the Age of Trump is a challenge. I work on blog posts, only to have their relevance wiped out before I finish my edits. Some weeks, nuanced political happenings are overshadowed by tweets that carry no actual policy directives. Sometimes, the President brings us to the brink of a possible nuclear war. It's hard to figure out what line to walk.

But I started this blog primarily to explain Congress, and that's what I will continue to do, even if this may be our last week on earth. Since the healthcare bill failed spectacularly only several weeks ago, President Trump has expressed frustration with Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and the Majority Leader's inability to bring key legislation to his desk.

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Stop Worrying About the Zika Virus

Or: Answering Your Zika Questions in Five Parts, with help from my Good Buddies at the CDC

1. "I think I got the Zika virus!"

You probably don't have Zika. Even if you get 150 mosquito bites a week, you probably don't have Zika. Even if you've seen Zika on the news a lot lately. Even if all your friends are tell you that you have Zika. Even if you read the tea leaves and they spelled out Z I K A.

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SCOTUS Does Care!

Today, the court upheld all provisions of the Affordable Care Act! In a contentious case before the Supreme Court, regarding the Federal subsidies for health insurance, Chief Justice John Roberts once again defended the Affordable Care Act.

King v. Burwell cuts at the heart of one of the key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare, for those not in the know). Namely, the idea that people can receive subsidies from the Federal government to sign up for insurance through the health insurance exchange. Currently, people receive a subsidy whether they sign up for health insurance through a state exchange, or through the Federal exchange, set up because many states flat-out refused to set up health insurance exchanges. 

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The Government Shutdown

It’s almost October, and that means the leaves are changing colors, the pumpkin spice latte is back, and the country once again finds itself on the brink of a possible government shutdown.

If you know nothing about the government shutdown, you’re not alone! Until two weeks ago, I thought a government shutdown meant that the police would stop working, firefighters would let houses burn down and public schools would close. That is not the case. A government shutdown does not mean the country stops working.  However, it does mean that the government stops providing many non-essential services. The Office of Management and Budget decides which government services would stop in a shutdown. Generally, agencies continue to operate in a shutdown if they are essential to protect our nation or the safety and life of the people in it. Our military would continue to fight overseas, doctors and nurses would continue to report to public hospitals, border patrol would keep going to work on the border, and our prisons would be staffed.

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